Commissioners Deborah Doyle and Thomas Haeuser look to help steer library amidst pandemic
Sonoma County Library commissioners Deborah Doyle and Thomas Haeuser were appointed as chair and vice-chair of the Sonoma County Library Commission at a Library Commission meeting on Aug. 3. Both look forward to contributing their knowledge and expertise as the library changes and grows during the pandemic and beyond.
Town of Windsor resident Doyle sees the Sonoma County Library as a vital community resource. “I believe in the power of public libraries to foster democracy, inspire innovation, empower the disenfranchised and lower barriers thus inviting diversity,” she said. “I want to be a part of the leadership of the library as it reviews and reallocates its resources to meet our current and daunting societal challenges and also to help to build community support to ensure a healthy future for the library system.”
In addition to experience with corporate, government and public libraries, Doyle has served in leadership roles on boards for organizations of various sizes and missions at local, state and national levels. For 20 years, Doyle has moderated board effectiveness workshops for library trustees, commissioners and “Library Friends” groups throughout California, helping groups move to the next level of governance, envision the future of their libraries and develop strategies to achieve it. Doyle has served two years on the library commission and was appointed by the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors.
As a City of Sonoma resident, Haeuser has been involved in local government as a commissioner for various groups and entities as well as many private charitable organizations for over 45 years. He has been a Sonoma County Library commissioner for four years.
Haeuser said that the library is facing a challenging situation with the novel coronavirus, closed branches and uncertain tax revenue. “This is a great responsibility for each of the commissioners as well as library staff,” he said.
Haeuser plans to help address the difficult problems that the library is facing during the pandemic. “I hope to help organize some of the policies and procedures that are unclear. I hope to encourage Sonoma County Library more to be a fundraising entity with the Sonoma County Public Library Foundation so that money can be raised to help cover some of the expenses with the branch buildings that are the responsibility of the [Joint Powers Agreement] members, who are also facing reduced income from the reduction of tax receipts,” he said.
The Sonoma County Library is governed by an independent 11-member library commission. The city councils of Cloverdale, Cotati, Healdsburg, Petaluma, Rohnert Park, Santa Rosa, Sebastopol, Sonoma and Windsor, along with the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors, each appoint a library commissioner. The City of Santa Rosa and the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors also jointly appoint one library commissioner.
-Submitted by Kat Gore, Sonoma County Library
